Atwoli eats humble pie over US election prediction
Outspoken Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU) Secretary-General Francis Atwoli was on Sunday forced to come out and remove the egg on his face following the resounding win of Democrat President-elect Joe Biden on Saturday night.
The Trade Unionist, during a TV interview in May, declared that incumbent US President Donald Trump would win a second term despite being hated by many people, including in America.
I’ve always said a day in politics is a very longtime. When I said Trump is going to win he had all the cards with him. Then came the Black Lives Matter Movement and the politicization of COVID-19 pandemic. Tables turned on his and these two became his greatest undoing.
— Francis Atwoli NOM(DZA),EBS,MBS. (@AtwoliDza) November 8, 2020
On Sunday, Atwoli said Trump is to blame for not recapturing the seat because of the way he mishandled the Covid-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Francis Atwoli: Donald Trump will be re-elected in the US
#JKLive
@KoinangeJeff pic.twitter.com/tKOA0jBWmL— Citizen TV Kenya (@citizentvkenya) May 27, 2020
“I’ve always said a day in politics is a very longtime. When I said Trump is going to win he had all the cards with him. Then came the Black Lives Matter Movement and the politicization of Covid-19 pandemic. Tables turned on his and these two became his greatest undoing,” tweeted Atwoli.
Supporters of Deputy President William Ruto have been castigating him for his wrong prediction on Trump, saying even his declaration that Ruto will not be president in 2022 was wrong.
Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen led Ruto’s supporters in mocking Atwoli after he broke his silence on the American election by congratulating Biden.
It has bitten itself together ???
— KIPCHUMBA MURKOMEN, E.G.H (@kipmurkomen) November 7, 2020
In 2016, the outspoken trade unionist described the then Republican Party presidential nominee, Donald Trump, as an assertive politician.
During the same show, Atwoli, who rates himself as the third most influential leader in Kenya after President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition Leader Raila Odinga, referred to a shirt he was wearing as a “Donald Trump shirt.”
He anchored his prediction that Trump stood a higher chance of winning the race to Whitehouse in the November 2016 America election as polls showed Trump closing in on his rival, the then Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Now Trump joins history’s bitter club of one-term presidents, who tried unsuccessfully to be reelected.